In The News
Jacobs acquires FMHC Corporation
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Pasadena, Calif.; www.jacobs.com) announced today that it has acquired the assets of FMHC Corp. (FMHC; Chicago, Ill). FMHC is a nationwide provider of turnkey wireless communications site development, design, network deployment, construction, and related services to…
Air Products increases U.S. Midwest liquid CO2 supply
Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) has signed a long-term agreement for the production of liquid CO2 with Big River Resources Boyceville, LLC (Boyceville, Wisc.). Air Products will operate a facility to produce 250 ton/d of liquid CO2 at Big…
January Chementator Briefs
Sludge dewatering Last month, Metso Corp. (Helsinki, Finland; www.metso.com) introduced what it claims to be the worlds first advanced solution — both measurements and control system — to optimize sludge dewatering at wastewater treatment plants. The Metso SDO (sludge…
This catalyst system requires significantly less palladium
A stabilized palladium catalyst system that can be used for making materials for organic solar cells and pharmaceuticals has been developed by the research groups of of Yoichi Yamada at Riken (Wako city; www.riken.jp) and Shigenori Fujikawa at the International…
Bacteria and algae team-up to tackle arsenic-contaminated water
Australian researchers have developed a method of cleaning arsenic out of contaminated water by combining the effects of bacteria and microalgae. Professor Megh Mallavarapu and his team, from the Cooperative Research Center for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment…
Advanced battery electrolytes made with low-cost, high-throughput method
A high-throughput method for synthesizing ionic-liquid-containing electrolytes developed by Boulder Ionics Corp. (Arvada, Colo.; www.boulderionics.com) has been refined to enable its use in commercial production. Boulder Ionics had previously piloted the continuous process for producing advanced ionic-liquid (IL) electrolytes at…
This graphite burner enables on-demand treatment of offgases
Offgases containing compounds of chlorine or fluorine are typically burned to enable the recovery of HCl or HF and prevent release into the environment. However, conventional combustion chambers require a long time to heat up, and thus are typically run…
Bacteria make lactic acid from palm waste
Extraction of palm oil generates large amounts of lignocellulose-rich byproduct known as empty fruit bunch (EFB), which is usually wasted. A new process for utilizing this waste to make lactic acid has been developed by a team of researchers in…
Making propylene on-purpose
Propylene — one of the most important petrochemical feedstocks — has traditionally been supplied, together with ethylene, primarily from naphtha crackers. The recent exploitation of shale gas in North America is causing a shift to ethane cracking as a source…
A two-step process that makes phenols from lignin
Professor Takao Masuda and colleagues at Hokkaido University (Sapporo; www.eng.hokudai.ac.jp/labo/cse), in collaboration with Idemitsu Kosan Co. (Idemitsu; Tokyo; both Japan; www.idemitsu.com), have developed a two-step process that converts wood-based lignin into phenols. They believe the achievement could lead to an…